aftermath
by A. X. Zanier
Summary: Just a short follow up to the events in A: IW in my expendable alt-u.


A/N: So ever since I saw A: IW the first time this little scene has been poking at me and when my Camp NaNo effort went pear-shaped, I decided, fuck it and just wrote the damn thing.

Yes, this falls within my expendable universe. Please keep in mind this does not negate or change the existing endings I created for the story as those all take place AFTER Avengers 4, whilst this takes place directly after Infinity War. Those endings still could/will come to pass in my wee little AU since I still hold the theory time/multi-verse travel happened/will be happening.

This may or may not be continued, depends on whether or not my writing mojo chooses to revisit me anytime in the near future.

Yes, I could have included this as yet another alt-ending to expendable given it's so short, but in the end decided to post it separately.

. . .

I grunted into an unhappy awareness, deadweight atop my body and blocking my view of the world about me. My head hurt horribly and made recalling the previous few minutes before I'd taken that unexpected nap difficult. I shoved at the creature weighing me down and swore loudly at the extra dash of pain that shot through my right shoulder.

What the hell was it with me and injuring my right side?

I twisted my head enough to see that the jaws of the beast were still locked on my shoulder. The fact that I could feel my fingers meant the injury couldn't be too bad if blood flow remained. I got my left hand over and forced the jaws open enough for me to slip free. But only from the jaws. The weight of the body still held me firmly in place, reminding me of that one adventure hunting Rumlow when I'd ended up with Steve and half a building pressing down on top of me with enough force to make me pass out.

The ending to this would in no way be as much fun.

It took some serious effort, but I managed to wiggle and squirm most of my way out from under the dead creature. Blood covered me from chin to knees, a mix of mine and that of the monster, and I could only hope I wouldn't have a reaction to either the bite or its blood getting into my open wounds. Not that only blood covered me as I had apparently gutted the thing and suspected viscera to be mixed in with the more common bodily fluids.

I raised my head in time to see a member of the Jabari tribe heading in my direction, with the clear intent to assist my efforts in gaining my freedom, only to see him stop dead, surprise and confusion on his face as he lifted his hands to watch them turn to dust. He managed to meet my eyes for one instant before his entire body fell apart into little more than dust and ash, to be blown away on the hot afternoon breeze.

I sat there in dumbfounded horror for long seconds, quite literally unable to understand what I had just witnessed. Shouts of fear drew my attention and I gazed about the battlefield to witness others also experiencing the sudden transformation from living and alive to ash.

My heart leapt into my throat as I stared down at my hands, my breath trapped in my chest, waiting for the same fate to befall me until forced to exhale. I stared about the field, watching in fright as other suffered the same fate as the Jabari man. Still, others had also survived the look on their faces obviously mirroring the one surely on mine.

My first attempt at standing an utter failure, my lower legs still trapped beneath the creature. The sudden movement reminding me that my head hurt like hell as the weight of the headgear shifted unexpectedly. I unclipped the helmet and tried to shove it off, damn near making myself pass out in the process.

I flopped back onto the ground, regretted it instantly, as the helmet pressed on the back of my skull making me want to scream. Instead, I tried to sit up, my balance completely off and leaving me stuck in place, my elbows digging into the hard ground to keep me from collapsing onto the hard turf. The pain in my shoulder being momentarily overridden by the echoing ache on the right side of my skull. I tried to free myself from the dead Outrider only to give it up as a bad job quickly. I tipped my head back sucking in air with the intention of venting my frustration via a primal scream when gentle hands settled on my shoulders.

I let out an eep of surprise causing the unseen person to chuckle in reaction.

She, the voice sounded female anyway, spoke in Wakandan, a language I had not yet mastered, add in the headache to end all headaches and I had no clue what she'd said to me.

"What?"

"Hold still," she repeated in heavily accented English.

Her arms shifted to under my shoulders hands firm against my chest and heaved, dragging me out from under the dead beast. As soon as she released me I kicked the creature in the head with my booted foot. "And fuck you too," I snarled.

My rescuer snorted. "Did that help?"

I growled under my breath. "A little." I turned to look up at her and made a grand attempt to tip over as the world dipped sideways further than expected.

She squatted down next to me. "You are injured. Do not move while I remove the… isigcina." She gestured at the headgear I had failed to take off the first try.

"Go for it," I told her with a quick nod that I regretted instantly.

The instant she tried to lift the armoured headgear off, the world faded out into a haze of pain so extreme that the next few minutes became a decided blur in my memory. A rarity indeed, but given the look on the woman's face when I returned to some version of reality it was probably a good thing that I wouldn't be able to remember. "Ow."

"Ow? That is all you have to say? Ow?" The woman looked equal parts amused and stunned.

"For now." I glanced over the field. "What the hell is happening?" I tried to get up, my right arm throbbing and now refusing to be of any real use at all.

She tucked one arm under my left and got me to my feet. "I do not know, but we seem to have survived it."

Survived.

I had the horrible feeling that I knew exactly what had happened.

"Where's Steve?" I asked craning my neck about in hopes of seeing him somewhere on the field.

"Captain Rogers? Ah, that explains the strange uniform. You are one of those he brought in." She oriented us and with one arm wrapped firmly around my waist, the other holding her spear, got us moving. "I last saw them heading this way."

Through the pounding in my skull, I tried to process what I had witnessed, people turning to dust before my eyes, as if they had never existed. "Oh shit," I muttered.

"What?" she asked.

I shook my head, ignoring the pain, and the sudden need to rail against the vagaries the universe had decided to throw at us. "Steve. Just get me to Steve."

She grunted an acknowledgment and increased our speed as much as I could handle, which admittedly wasn't all that much at the moment. The grassy landscape becoming lush and green as we approached the trees filled heavily with brush and undergrowth that had grown under the cliffside lab where members of the Wakandan science team had been working to free Vision from the Mind Stone.

We could hear voices and followed them until arriving at a tiny glade that would have been beautiful at any other time, but currently held a gathering of the world's greatest heroes all of whom appeared to be in a state of shock. Steve still knelt on the ground next to what appeared to be a body, a clear victim of the battle that had just raged about us.

Our arrival pulled the attention of a couple of them, most notably Natasha, who's eyes went wide when she caught a good look at me. I had no clue how bad I really looked, not having seen the injury to my head yet.

"Myla," Nat breathed out as if relieved to see that I had made it through mostly intact.

Steve's head snapped up and locked onto me.

I had seen Steve in many situations, angry, happy, sad, disappointed, but now… now he looked broken. He got to his feet slowly and walked over to me… to us, the woman, I'd finally come to the conclusion she must be one of the Dora Milaje given her outfit, blaming the most likely concussion preventing me from realizing it sooner.

He took my weight from her, his arm firm about me, needing the support I could provide as well as giving me all he could to keep me upright. "Myls, you're hurt."

I snorted. Regretted it instantly. Sucked in a sharp breath of piercing pain then managed a rough, "You should see the other guy."

"It is dead," the Dora supplied, "Very dead."

Steve shifted slightly and I finally got a good look at the body he'd been sitting next to when I'd staggered into the clearing. "Vision?" His body no longer the vibrant green and gold that I recalled from just hours before, but a dull and lifeless gray. I'd known him well enough back at the Compound to consider him more than a co-worker if not quite enough to call him a friend. If Vision were dead that meant… "Steve, what happened?" I knew the answer, even with the pain in my head, the throbbing of my shoulder and the exhaustion that still tried to roll over me and force me to my knees, I'd put the pieces together. People don't just vanish as if erased from the universe, unless…

Steve closed his eyes, that desperately sad look back on his face, the loss, the pain, as if not just the weight of the world but the entire universe had come crashing down on his shoulders.

"We lost."


End file.
